This invention relates to hog confinement facilities. More specifically, this invention relates to a system and method of reducing ammonia emissions produced at a hog confinement facility.
Hog confinement facilities house a plurality of hogs therein and produce massive amounts of waste including hog feces and urine. In a typical hog facility a plurality of slats are provided on the floor that are spaced apart to provide enough space between the slats so that feces and urine fit through the slats while the slats are not far enough apart that piglets get their feet caught therein. Typically, these slats are slanted in one direction and a waste storage compartment is placed underneath the slats so that the waste is conveyed and removed. Specifically, hogs tend to walk on their own feces and as they trample over the top of the feces it is pushed in between the slats into the waste containment area.
While the slats provide a way for hog feces and urine to be placed in a compartment underneath the facility keeping the facility itself relatively clean, the feces produce large amounts of ammonia, or Nh3. Specifically, fecal matter and urine is attacked by the aerobic bacteria such that when the bacteria begin to consume and start breaking down the fecal matter and urine, the ammonia emissions become airborne. In this activity of decomposition ammonia is the most abundant and the United States Environmental Protection Agency has now officially set standards that regulate the amount of emissions acceptable for release coming from hog operations on a daily accumulations schedule not to exceed 100 pounds per day.
Therefore, a principal object of the present invention is to reduce the amount of ammonia emissions produced at a hog facility.